


Dectheon

by Experiment413



Series: Dectheon [1]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Actual Murder, Alternate Universe - Post-Apocalypse, Doomed Timelines, Father-Daughter Relationship, Gen, God Tier, Implied Relationships, Magic, Mentioned Murder, Murder, Semi-OC, Some characters only mentioned, Time Copy, dean is the human!droog/semi-oc because what?????
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-18
Updated: 2016-01-01
Packaged: 2018-04-26 21:59:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 10
Words: 7,946
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5022043
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Experiment413/pseuds/Experiment413
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lords commanded their aspect.<br/>Very rarely did it occur that their aspect began to command <i>them</i>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> An AU in which Mobius’s Lord powers overtook him. .. And Hadron’s dead.
> 
> Somewhat based off of Borderlands? Somewhat. It’s not a Borderlands AU, just some characters were based off of others.
> 
> Thanks to Droog/Dusk for doing a fuckton of shit. Too much shit. A lot of shit.

Dean Dracon came downstairs, as unstable as the stairs were, to the ground floor of the little base. Wayward Vagabond perked up to look at him, and Peregrine Mendicant just frowned. He knew the Prospitian despised him.

 

“Mornin’, Dean,” said WV. 

“You’re late,” muttered PM.

“I know that,” Dean responded. “But I’ve got a place to be, and I thought sleeping in was going to help me through it.”

“It’ll get dark fast.” PM got up and left the room. “Outside is never safe in the night.”

“Where are you even headed?” asked WV.

“Somewhere alone.”

“Without us?”

“Without you. It’s my own business.”

“Whatever you say.”

“You know,” yelled PM from the other room. “We don’t like secrets being kept from us! We can trust no one out here, and you are one of the people that I do not trust!”

“Okay, so I’ve done some bad things. Please, PM, that’s the past.”

 

PM walked back out and squinted at Dean. WV looked back and forth between the two, confused and fearful.

 

“The moment we ran into you, you have been vague and dangerous. You’re ascended. God Tiers can’t be trusted, as far as we know, you’ve been plotting to destroy us! We’ve already lost two people to you!” the carapacian snapped.

“Whoa, PM, please calm down,” said WV. “Those were accidents.”

“You fucking think, WV! What if they weren’t?!”

“I--” the small Dersite stammered. “I guess you’re right.”

“Dean, go on and leave. Never return to us, in fact.”

“Whatever you say,” Dean said with a shrug, and he walked out into the daylight.

 

The place was a wasteland. It’d been like this for years. The small town Dean had been staying in was quickly built as a place for survivors. As Dean walked through the town, people scurried inside, shut their doors, and closed their windows. They were afraid.

 

Nobody trusted a person who had ascended to Godhood, as a God Tier was the one who destroyed the whole universe, turned planets into barren wastelands.

People said it was an angry Mage, who’d become outraged with someone or a group of people, and destroyed the universe as a result.

 

And here Dean was, in a world afraid of gods, instead of praising them.

But Dean didn’t feel like a god.

 

He left the town silently. His car sat outside the town, luckily undamaged. He hopped in, and started the engine. He had a place to go. While his true destination was unknown, maybe some town residents had an idea where it was.

 

He pulled a map out of his backpack. The nearest town was about 20 miles away. 

Setting the map aside, he began to drive in the town’s direction.

Thunderwood.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Playlist by Droog/Dusk.

As he drove, Dean rummaged through his bag quickly. There was nothing to crash into; he had no worries. He pulled out a [dumb, beat up old cassette](http://8tracks.com/draconiandignitary/dumb-beat-up-old-cassette) and put it in to play it.

 

It brought up too many memories, thoughts of the past, before this all happened. He remembered her. Back then, she was all he really ever had. Everyone else got mad at him or turned against him. Maybe if she had stuck around long enough, she would’ve gotten mad too, but how was he to know.

Molly had been killed when the Mage destroyed everything. She and Dean had been in love, and Dean grew so, so angry at the Mage when she had died. 

 

Revenge. Revenge is what Dean wanted.

 

He’d spent the rest of his life hunting and tracking the location of the hidden Mage, finding out her aspect, everything she was capable of, her background, and trying to locate the place where she was.

She was a Mage of Light, daughter of two of the strongest existing classes, he’d concluded through listening to stories. He’d taken them, combined them all into something logical, something he understood, but it wasn’t complete.

He wouldn’t be done for a long time, he thought. He’d have to get more information.

 

Dean brought his car to a halt at the front gate of Thunderwood. It was rare for a town to be heavily guarded, but Thunderwood seemed to be one of those places. Dean parked his car and hopped out, stepping to the gate with his backpack slung around one shoulder. 

 

“Sorry, kid,” yelled one of the guards from the top of the wall surrounding the large town. “We’re not letting anyone in because of the incident in Osttown!”

“That’s more than forty miles off,” he responded. “Why would you be worried?”

“Listen, kid--”

“Hey,” a familiar voice piped up. “The kid’s right, you shouldn’t be worrying about it. The Knight won’t get far.”

At the top, an old friend appeared. Aranea Serket, the Sylph of Light.

Hell, could she even be called a friend?

 

She looked down at you, looking you over quickly.

“Aranea, do you know them?”

“Let him in.”

“But what if--”

“I said let him in.”

 

The gate opened, and Dean stepped into the town. Nearby, a sign read “Welcome to Thunderwood”. The population had been crossed out and rewritten many times, and now it said “Population: 53”.

 

Aranea approached him.

“What are you doing here?” she asked in a whisper, narrowing her eyes at him.

“I’ll ask the same for you,” he responded.

“Okay, fine,” she said. “I’ve called this place my hometown for a while, although I travel a lot. People know me here, and I actually got a good reputation. There, I answered, now it’s your turn.”

“I’m looking for the Mage.”

“You’re kidding me. Ugh, goddammit, Dean. Come on, we’ll head to my house.”

 

Aranea was a person of knowledge, story, legend, and lore.

“Well, if you’re looking for the Mage,” she began. “I guess you came to a good person.”

“I didn’t come to you,” Dean corrected. “I ran into you.”

“Same thing. Now.. here.” She pulled out a notebook and set it on a table. “I’ve been studying out and about for a while now.”

“What’s your focus point?”

“The last God Tiers alive. If I’m correct, there’s less than fifteen of us left.”

“In the world?”

“In the universe, Dean. The whole thing. And all of us, or, most of us, should be here.”

“Coincidence?”

“I think not,” Aranea laughed.

She scrawled something down before beginning to turn pages. “The Mage… Okay, most of what is known of the Mage is vague, just that she is, in fact, female, and is the daughter of a Muse and a Lord, which can explain her great power. We.. don’t know her aspect, though.”

“Mage of Light. I’ve done research myself,” Dean said.

Aranea’s eyes slightly widened and she wrote it down. “Explains the ability to cause the universe-wide apocalypse.”

“So, the Mage never really used her powers after her ascension, but after her lover, a Dersite carapacian, was murdered, she went insane and wiped out the entire universe trying to kill the murderer. Since then, her father, the Lord, has hidden her somewhere on this planet in a building that only ever seems to be described as futuristic and ‘probably made out of meteors’. I’ve heard many people say where it is, but most say it’s about 160 miles northeast of Osttown.”

“As if they know where it actually is.”

“Many have claimed to see it, others say they didn’t but a person went and died before they could tell the tale.”

“So you can get near enough to see it, but can’t get in without being killed.”

“Basically.”

“Well, I guess I’m going to catch a Mage.” He pulled out his map, and circled the area about 150 miles north of Osttown. He put it back and got up.

“Hold it, Dracon,” said Aranea, getting up and taking an earpiece out of a drawer. She put it over his ear. “Keep in touch with me. I’m going to get out of town soon, so I’ll be about if you need to meet me face-to-face.”

“Thanks, Aranea.”

“No problem.”

 

As he was driving away from town, he noticed he’d be running low on gas. He turned quickly to head to Osttown. He wasn’t going to make it 180 miles with barely any gas. After some time, he stopped at the small town to something rather strange.

  
Give or take, his surprise was about 100 Dave Striders.


	3. Chapter 3

The town was stained red, but not with blood. It was stained with the red of a lot of fucking Dave Striders. Dave’s time copies ran wild. Most were tricking authorities or citizens, while the rest were either rapping or running around. Aranea had said something about him, and Dean guessed this was it. Ignoring the Daves, he went to go look for a gas station.

 

“Excuuuuse me!” someone yelled. Something became a speedy blur of browns and pinks, causing several shouts to come up. “God Tier!”

There was a slam of a door, and it was gone. A group of Daves scurried to defend it. 

 

Other God Tiers were here, Dean knew, and those Daves were guarding them. He bolted at one of them, withdrawing a gun from his bag, shooting it, and running through. The Dave had fizzled out like a hologram, but was like a physical entity. 

He shut the door and went down the stairs.

 

“Droogy?” asked a girl, looking up to the door suddenly. There was Aradia Megido, with the actual Dave laying on a table, Feferi Peixes nearby, checking his wounds.

“I-- uh--” Dean stammered. Fuck. He’d killed Droog. It’d been an accident. “He’s dead, I’m sorry.”

The Maid gave a quiet “Oh.”

“Sup,” said Dave, voice hoarse. He acted as if nothing had happened.

“Dave, hold still,” snapped Feferi. “Don’t say anything. Let me focus.”

 

Dean jumped at the sound of someone pounding at the door.

“Police! Open up!”

 

“Shit,” said Dave. “They’re gonna haul me back to jail.”

“I’d kick you if you weren’t hurt,” said Feferi.

“Dave, I thought your time copies were defending us,” Aradia said, afraid.

“Were.”

“Why’d you even get in trouble with them?” asked Dean.

“Broke outta jail. I’m looking for a friend.”

“Where are they?”

“Up in Nor--”

 

Feferi and Aradia jumped when a police officer broke down the door.

 

“Dean?!” yelled Aranea from the earpiece. “What’s going on?!”

Dean ignored her, hesitating before switching to his Seer outfit. He didn’t want to use his powers. He’d sworn he wouldn’t.

If it was for an innocent person though, he assumed it was okay to use them.

 

A monster was what people called the ones ascended now.

Dean was beginning to accept it.

 

A Seer of Space is capable of seeing things that remain unseen. The tricky part was using it to their advantage.

Flashing out of his head, Dean saw the officer’s moves. He elbowed the gun out of their hand, and threw a punch to the jaw. It hit with a nice  crack! .

He kneed the officer in the torso, causing them to fall to the floor.

 

“Get out of here,” he simply told the others. Aradia grabbed Dave and bolted, knocking over Feferi, who scrambled after. Dean followed, running to his car quickly.

 

He started the engine and sped away northward.

 

Shit. He still needed gas.

The nearest town was 30 miles northwest, the furthest he was likely going to get to his original destination.

 

Killing the Mage could wait, he guessed. He needed gas to make the journey.

 

He sped into Northern Peak. It was one of the most populated towns in the area. No, not town, but a city.

It was cold enough to snow here, but it never did. The air could stab something like a knife, sting in the back of their throat for ages. It had the best prison in 300 miles, people would say. No one could escape and no one could break in.

Dean doubted that. Since the apocalypse, actual justice and stability never managed well, especially the people trying to enforce it.

  
In a place with that many people though, there certainly was gasoline. That’s all that mattered to him now.


	4. Chapter 4

“I ended up finding one of the Megido girls,” Dean stated into the headset, his voice monotone. He parked the car in a lot once he got gas and stayed in it for a while to chat with Aranea, answer her questions. “Anyone else?” she asked.

“The Knight who escaped the prison there. He’s looking for a friend... or that’s what he said.”

“Oh, the Strider kid. He has relations with an inmate up in Northern Peak. I assume he’s going to break him out.”

“I wish him luck with that.”

“He’ll fail.”

“There was also one of the Peixes girls? Last I heard of them, HIC was killed.”

“She died in the apocalypse, yes.”

“Good fucking riddance.”

“Is that everything?”

“The police broke in. I think I killed someone. I don’t know, I didn’t stick around long enough.”

“Congratulations, you’ve probably committed homicide.”

 

Dean started the car, driving off to the street again to head northeast. It would take hours to get where he was heading, and he likely wouldn’t find it even then. It’d be obvious, he expected. Big, like you could see it from space but you actually couldn’t because hardly anything was that big nowadays. The atmosphere was filled with dust, anyway, a nice thick layer that tinted the light blue, cloudless skies somewhat tan constantly. This was a wasteland, filled with dust and sand and dry dirt and more dust, what would people expect? The stuff was flung into the air plenty of times. People got used to it in their eyes, breathing it in. People were allergic at one point, but they died off from it. 

 

He pulled off, just to be interrupted by Dave, flying past with two cop cars (or rather, normal cars covered with many reflective surfaces, cop cars had been destroyed), and six cops on foot, pursuing him. He was headed straight for the prison in a blur of bright red, and Dean almost veered off the road when Dave’s sunglasses caught the glare of the sun.

 

“Goddammit Strider,” Dean said into the earpiece. “He’s flying through town, being chased. I also almost drove into a reservoir.” 

“Where’s he at?” asked Aranea from the other end. Her voice was a little crackly.

“He’s flying to the prison, I think.”

 

Time players could pull off some weird shit, no matter their class. Dave, with his time fuckery, had managed to slam one of the cop cars into the prison wall, making a big hole in it. He flew quickly inside. Dean squinted at the scene, trying to get a better look at it. “He’s smashed the wall with one of the cars. That’s one way to break into a prison.”

 

The Strider flew back out, and was proceeded to be shot at by the police surrounding the hole in the wall. He was holding someone who looked unconscious and shaking them lightly on occasion. Eventually, he got sick of the bullets and darted back off into the sky. 

 

“They’re gone. He tooks someone and left,” Dean said.

“Go after them,” Aranea responded.

“No. I’ve got places to be.”

Aranea sighed. “Dean, please, listen to me--”

“I’m sorry, but I’m going to where I plan to go.”

  
He got back on the road and sped off northeast through the barren, dusty wasteland.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I made the playlist in this chapter!

The whole world was flat, empty except for the occasional dead shrub. It was very much like a desert, but more like a salt flat. Out here away from the cities, it was hard to find a path worn by cars, so Dean had to make a lot of turns to avoid cracks in the ground. 

He’d just about found a little strip of the main road to Thunderwood when he hit something hard. There was a brief yell from outside, and he hopped out once he caught his breath, startled.

 

In front of the car was a troll girl in an obnoxiously pink Rogue of Heart outfit. She wasn’t dead, so she was actually God Tier. 

“Ow,” she said, standing up and brushing herself off. “That was awfurly rude of mew, sir.”

“Sorry, sorry. I didn’t see you,” Dean apologized. “What are you even doing out here?”

“I’m looking fur a friend,” she said. It became evident, she spoke with cat puns. Perhaps this was a Leijon. Dean had never met one himself, but Molly had and said they frequently did.

“What’s their name?”

“Feffurry Pawxes.”

“The Peixes girl?” said Aranea from the earpiece. It seemed she was listening in, and could translate what alien language the Rogue just spoke. “I didn’t find her, but I did catch up with the Striders.”

“My friend is saying she hasn’t seen her anywhere, but last I saw her, she was in Osttown.”

“That’s at least a start. Thank mew!”

 

With that, she bounced off.  _ ‘Huh. Strange girl,’ _ Dean thought, checking the front of his car. It was fine. There was no dent, no scratch. He got back in, started the engine, and drove off again. It ran fine, he detected no issue.

 

Two new voices came up on the earpiece. “Sup Space player dude,” said one, obviously Dave. “We heard you were going after the Mage. That’s tricky business,” said another. He didn’t recognize this one.

Had Aranea said Strider _ s _ ?

 

“They want to help you, for some reason,” said Aranea. “They know something.”

“ _ I _ know something,” said the unidentified voice.

“I do too,” said Dave. “It’s that if you fuck with the Mage or whatever you won’t come back alive.”

“There’s that, and you surely won’t die Heroic. So, I had three friends go off to fight the Mage once. They all died. They had ascended. Not even God Tiers can fight this Mage and live, kid, so if you thought the semi-immortality thing was going to work, it’s not.”

“I wasn’t counting on it,” Dean responded.

“Good, then. I’m Dirk, by the way.”

 

He placed the name with the voice. Maybe that’s who Dave was carrying out of the prison, too. If he was with Dave, it obviously was. He placed the name and voice to an image. So that was him. Dave’s ‘friend’.

 

If Dirk was right though, Dean was fucked. He couldn’t fight the Mage alone.

Maybe he’d need a team. Maybe more than three people was the key to defeating the Mage. Aranea had mentioned solo missions that all failed, but a group of three, all ascended to godhood?

 

He was doomed to die, wasn’t he?

 

It was better to take a risk, though, he thought. He had nothing to live for now, nothing to protect. No one would care if he died now.

He may as well try and at least become another story to be told, a cautionary tale to children who want to take on the Mage. It was worth it.

 

It took him hours to get there. He’d take naps in his car several times, driven in complete circles, gone west then east then back again. But eventually, he found it.

 

It was almost a dome shape, and was a big building that didn’t fit its surroundings in any matter. It almost looked like a building that had actually existed in the past, but was never damaged by the apocalypse. It was a deep purple-blue with several green dots here and about, and had no very obvious entrance, but instead a large panel that covered a seventh or eighth of the building’s exterior. As he slowly approached, he noticed blackened spots with some sense of God Tier magic to them. Other than that, the building was untouched.

It was magnificent, to say the least.

 

He paused at the large panel. A button lay next to it. Up close, it was easier to tell this was a door. The light on the button was red, but he didn’t know what that meant. 

He took a deep breath, hoping it wasn’t his last, and pressed the button. It turned green, and the panel slid up to let him in.

 

It revealed an empty room. There was a desk to the left of it, with a cassette player and a large binder, and a tiny box next to the binder. There was some kind of crushed green matter on the floor, and Dean stepped on it as he stepped through. He jumped back quickly.

In the right far corner of the space was a violin, dusty and seemingly untouched for a while. Next to it was a cardboard box filled with some CDs and books and old, battered cassettes.

 

On the back wall was a door, and he dare not try to open it.

 

He looked over to the desk on the left. A four-inch white binder with ‘Memories’ written in Sharpie sat on it, and it seemed to beckon him. He flipped to a random page to meet a group of three. There was a man in bright yellow and blue with a smile that seemed a little too big for his face. The woman on the right bore the badge of a Dersite Agent, and she seemed to give off a feeling of high authority, even with a soft smile like she had in the photo.

Between them was a little girl with vibrant blue eyes and a very excited expression.

The caption beneath it was scrawled in gold handwriting and read ‘Seventh birthday!!!’.

 

He flipped to another page to see a slightly older version of the child and the woman again, out on a checkered planet that Dean knew. It was Skaia, and the child looked like she truly belonged there.

Glancing at the caption, written in a light blue curved text this time, seemed to prove it. It said ‘home’ with a tiny heart next to it.

 

The one beneath it was a picture of the child clinging tightly to the man’s shoulders, both appearing to laugh. This one said, in the same blue as before, ‘dad and i are glad to be back!’. So that was the child’s father. Was the Dersite Agent her mother?

 

The photos stopped at an old picture of a younger version of the Agent, smiling.

Beneath it, still in blue, was ‘I miss you, Mom.’ and again, a heart next to it.

 

He shut the binder, and glanced to the cassette on the table. Huh. It wasn’t damaged in the slightest, and was very well taken care of.

In metallic violet, ‘ [if you're not dead yet](http://8tracks.com/experiment413/if-you-re-not-dead-yet) ’ was written in big, curly letters across the label. beneath it, in smaller letters was ‘compiled by Hadron Kaleido’.

 

He grabbed it and pocketed it, and jumped when the door opened.

 

There stood the child in the photos he’d seen, but older. Much older.

Before him was the Mage of Light.


	6. Chapter 6

Dean had switched into his God Tier as he had heard the noise, and he was ready to defend himself the moment the Mage had stepped through the door.

 

The thing was, she wasn’t attacking. Instead, as she registered what was happening, her expression turned to fear.

“Shit,” she muttered. “You, get out. Get out now.”

“I’m not going anywhere soon,” snapped Dean. “You destroyed our universe, and I’m here to  _ avenge _ it.”

“Wait, that wasn’t me, that was my da--”

 

She was cut off by a burst of power that knocked both her and Dean back. There was a loud roar, someone yelling “Don’t you  _ dare _ touch my  _ daughter _ !”

Dean scrambled to his feet. A man, tall, slender, and ghostly pale hovered about two feet off the floor inbetween them. This was a Lord of Space, one of the deadliest of the possible classpect combinations.

 

“Dean?!” Aranea was yelling into the earpiece. “What’s going on?! Who said that?! Did you find the Mage?! Are you okay?!”

“There’s a Lord, Aranea,” he responded.

“What?! Shit! What’s his aspect?!”

“Space.”

Aranea gave another loud “Shit!”

 

“I told you to get out! Please! Run! I don’t want anyone else dying at his hands!” yelled the Mage. Dean wasn’t listening to her. He looked briefly to the possibilities, only to find static. Something was interfering with his abilities. He’d have to count on luck.

 

He fumbled through his Sylladex for a gun, just to be lashed out at by Space powers once again. They seemed to shimmer red, and glowed with little specks of white that looked almost like stars. While it seemed like a hologram, it was physical, and boy did it pack a punch.

 

Dean was once again knocked back, but got up and veered to the right and teleported quickly to land a powerful blow. The Lord teleported away and Dean met the floor once again.

 

This time, the Mage had acted. Dean felt something hit him, and it did no damage, at least, none he could feel. He peered up to see the Mage and the Lord as quick little blurs, the Mage zipping from one corner of the room to the other, trying to attack the Lord as he teleported quickly around. Both of them were painfully fast. The Lord was going so quick he couldn’t even be seen, he was just a flicker of black and red and white. The Mage went on a fly-stop-fly-stop cycle, taking her breaks to make moves. She wasn’t using God Tier abilities for defense or attack, so perhaps she had no offensive magic powers.

She actually managed to elbow the Lord in the gut before she zipped back behind Dean.

 

How had she managed to hit him?

Hadn’t she called him her dad?

 

Maybe that was why. They likely had a bit of pity left for each other, even if it wasn’t much, Dean had just seen it in action.

 

The Lord glared back at him, and as Dean moved to fling himself at the Lord, his opponent teleported off to avoid. This time, Dean didn’t lose his footing and teleported right behind the Lord, who in turn teleported away and out of sight. He took a cautious step forward, just to have the Lord reappear in front of him and knock him to the floor with some strange force.

The Mage took this moment to tackle the Lord, who didn’t suspect it, and both of them vanished before crashing into Dean, who had just gotten up, making him land face first.

 

The floor tasted disgusting was what Dean concluded.

 

Aranea was screaming something, but he couldn’t make it out.

He got back up, teleporting away from the Lord once he spotted him. The Mage seemed to be temporarily using him for cover, taking times when the Lord was distracted to make her attack.

 

But why was she helping the person who came to kill her?

 

Dean teleported in a quick three moves, managing to punch the Lord before he could react. He teleported off once he was hit, and slammed Dean back against the wall with more of his Space energy. Dean crumpled up in pain, sliding to the floor. Was he bleeding?

 

The Lord stepped to stand above him, glaring down at him. Dean squinted as he produced a small meteor in one hand, likely ready to kill him. He was just about ready to accept fate.

 

That was, until the Mage leaped around her father’s neck, trying to choke him. The Lord reeled backwards, making the small meteor hit the floor with useless force. The Mage managed to shift her weight and knocked them both to the ground. She got out from under him fast, mouthing “Get out” to Dean. He obliged, and fled out the open panel door and out to the wasteland again.

 

He teleported away, but not too far that it was out of sight.

 

What was that girl up to? She’d said something, but now the memory was fading. Why was she protecting someone who only went to kill her? Why did the Lord interfere?

 

“Dean? Dean?” Aranea was saying.

“I’m okay,” he responded.

“What the hell happened in there?”

“The Mage. She told me to get out. The Lord showed up and started attacking. I think-- I think they’re family.”

“You can’t actually be serious, can you?”

“I don’t think the Mage killed everyone. She seems to have no offensive moves. She… did something to me. Maybe that’s why I’m alive.”

“It’s likely,” Aranea said. There was a turning of pages. “A Mage of Light is capable of manipulating luck and chance, so she likely raised the chances that you would live.”

 

He watched for a while. Would the Lord leave eventually? 

Was the Mage okay?

 

Something made him worry. She had saved him, protected him from death. He would at least stick around.

 

A while passed before a large rock blasted through the roof of the dome. It hit the floor after flying several dozen feet with a loud  _ CRASH! _ . It sent dust flying everywhere, turning the landscape around it into a storm. Dean had to cover his eyes and duck, the blast radius was so large. Once again, he landed onto the floor, and he had to curl up to not get anymore hurt. 

 

He stayed like that for what felt like hours to him, not daring to look up and assess the damage. He only opened his eyes at peered up when someone tapped him.

  
“Hey,” her voice was barely a whisper. Bright blue eyes. The Mage. “Let’s get you out of here, come on.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A quick chapter written when I was half asleep.
> 
> By the way, here's the Dectheon playlist collection. It tends to update: http://8tracks.com/experiment413/collections/dectheon

“What’s your name?”

“Saturn Trip.”

“Why’d you save me?”

“I’ve seen too many people die.”

“What happened to you?”

“That’s a long story.”

 

They’d gotten out of the area as fast as they could. The Mage was a terribly strange kid, socially awkward and sensitive to the sun, as if she hadn’t been out in years. She’d mutter things, but most strange of all, she was benevolent.

 

“What’s the story, then? I’ll listen.”

Saturn sighed, and began her little tale.

 

“When the universe was normal, it was me and my parents and some friends, and it was all… okay.” She hesitated before looking up and saying, “Better than this.”

“When my mother was murdered, my dad went on a rampage. He wanted revenge. He took my power and his and destroyed the whole place. Put the blame on me, let me suffer a while longer. Before I know it, I have people trying to kill me for something I was falsely accused of. Trying to make history.”

 

She sat down on the ground.

 

“You were used for your power?” Dean asked.

“Was for a while,” she responded. “My life just kind of repeated itself.”

“What do you mean?”

“People called me a lot of things. I was feared or got made fun of or had some person just randomly mad at me, and then it stopped for a little bit, and now here it is again. I’ve learned to live with it.”

Dean paused. “Yeah,” he said. “Me too.”

 

Aranea asked a lot of questions, and Dean asked them to Saturn for her. When she stopped answering, Dean stopped asking Aranea’s questions, and Aranea, in turn, stopped.

They were back on the road, headed to Highfield, where Aranea was currently staying. Something picked at the back of Dean’s mind. Aranea’s questions had been a little hostile to Saturn. What if something happened to the kid?

 

Why was Dean worrying?

It wouldn’t affect him.

 

Or maybe it would. He was starting to see a little more, now that he knew who the Mage was. He took a split second to use his powers once again, to see into her point of view, or her part of the story, or… something.

 

While Dean couldn’t exactly read minds, he tried to see things from others points of view when using his powers, and tried his best to read emotion. All he seemed to get from her was isolation. A dreadful loneliness that would probably drive a person like Dean to insanity.

Maybe the two weren’t so horribly unlike.

 

“Hey,” Dean said after a long silence. “Is your mom… Hadron Kaleido?” He’d seen the name on the tape he’d found, so he may as well ask.

“... Yeah,” Saturn responded. “Why?”

He reached into his bag and pulled out the cassette, handing it to her. “I found this.”

“... She gave me this,” she said, looking it over. “A few days before she was killed, she gave to me as a gift.” 

“Did she like music?”

“Both of my parents were musicians. My dad more than my mom. My mom was a dancer, rather. Sometimes she’d sing. It was a rare little treat.”

“You miss her, don’t you?”

She nodded sadly.


	8. Chapter 8

Aranea’s temporary space in Highfield was a single room that travelers could rent. She’d said it’d be easy to find, as every other house in Highfield were typically two-story houses that survived (or barely) the end of the universe. It was a happy little town, managing well, even more so than Thunderwood. Every citizen knew each other, Dean heard. Few kept themselves locked up and away though, and citizens of every species hopped about. Dean could see an older violet-blooded troll chatting with a little battle-scarred Prospitian, a salamander selling a small variety of vegetables, and even a cherub chasing after and laughing with a human child who couldn’t be any older than seven.

 

Saturn had switched out of her God Tier and into something that just looked like Prospitian attire. It wasn’t scratched, burned, or even slightly touched at all by the apocalypse, and something as well kept as that was nonexistent nowadays. It’d have to do. Otherwise, Dean was sure someone would try to hurt her. He needed her, he felt.

No questions arose from citizens, to both of their lucks.

 

Aranea looked up as they walked into the house, and quickly looked over Saturn before giving a little nod. Saturn seemed nervous. Dirk gave her a funny look, or, Dean thought it was a funny one, he couldn’t tell. The Strider was wearing cracked shades that were so tinted you couldn’t see his eyes.

Saturn went to find a place on the floor to sit, and Dean just leaned up against the wall. 

 

“Okay, kiddo, what’s the plan?” Aranea asked Saturn after finishing her writing. “If you’re not the one we have to kill.”

“Well,” said Dave. “We don’t have’ta kill them.”

“It’s in our best intentions to,” muttered Saturn.

“I don’t doubt her,” Dean plainly stated.

“Where should I start.”

“State the main goal and go on from there.”

 

There was a long hesitation as Saturn stopped to think.

 

“We kill the Lord of Space, Mobius Trip,” she said. Aranea flipped to another page and wrote something down before bookmarking it and going to a blank page. 

"And how do we do that?"

Another pause. "We need everyone who's going to fight be ascended by now."

"Go on."

"We also need him." Saturn pointed at Dean. Aranea gave her a curious look.

"What for?"

"He's the only other Space player." Aranea quickly wrote this down.

"Okay, kid, give us a plan. You seem to know what's up."

 

Saturn gave her idea. A raid of four people, split into individuals. She’d take lead, because she could make her father show up and not kill her on the spot. The fighting could alternate between Dean and Dirk, and Dave could be there to cause Time Copy bullshit as a distraction. 

 

“I’ll be an act of revenge for all of us,” Saturn stated. “Admit it, we all suffered after the apocalypse.”

 

God Tier abilities were necessary. The two Light players were a plus when it came to their chances of defeating Mobius, making a 99/1 almost a 60/40, other team members included.

When asked about it, Saturn said there wasn’t a current possible way to get a 50/50 match or for their side to be stronger than his. She’d explained the only one who’d ever been an exact 50/50 was her mother, the Muse of Time. Aranea accepted that answer, writing more down.

  
They left at dawn to the same, dark, dome-shaped building, far off north.


	9. Chapter 9

The plan commenced as discussed. Dean felt alone out in the wasteland, although he wasn’t. Dave had fallen asleep in the back seats. Dean was going to stick to his ‘no magic’ rule up until he had the building in sight. Dave basically said “fuck it” and decided to come with. The Strider had only left when they got about 20 miles from their destination. 

 

Once she’d got inside, Saturn’s father showed up, as expected. She’d set her earpiece aside, so their conversation was muffled. Dean was supposed to meet with Dirk for the plan, but he wasn’t here. Strange. 

He walked about, looking around.

 

“Aranea,” he said.

“What is it?” Aranea asked from the earpiece.

“Dirk isn’t here.”

“He’s not? Dirk, Dirk do you copy?”

 

Nothing.

 

“Shit,” said Dean. He kept looking about while Aranea tried to contact Dirk.

“Aranea,” he said after a while. “I don’t think he’s coming, should I just go?”

Aranea sighed. “Fine.”

 

Dean walked to the door, and just before he could open it, Dirk teleported in front of him, sword in hands.

“Back off,” the Prince snapped, and Dean stumbled back. “I’m not going to let you kill the Lord.”

“Why not?” Dean angrily said and regained his footing.

“He made a good point destroying this place, didn’t he? Anyone who harms his loved ones is dead.”

“It wasn’t the right thing to do, though, now was it? Look at what he’s done now. He isn’t helping any of society recover. He’s locked up his daughter against her wishes. He’s left us all for dead.”

 

With this, Dirk advanced. Dean was taken by surprise, teleporting several feet away from the Strider. Dirk swiped and slashed at Dean quite mercilessly. He teleported a bit away so Dirk would have to waste some time catching up to him, so he took the time to grab his gun, turn around, and fire.

 

The Prince crumpled up and landed on the floor.

“Just,” Dean merely muttered, lowering the gun.

 

Dirk was dead. Dean would have to fight Mobius alone. He accepted the newly heavied burden on himself, despite Aranea now saying he was fucked. Dean still had a powerful Mage on his side. He walked back to the dome, opened it, and stepped inside.

 

The air had shifted, become colder with the air conditioning throughout the hideaway. The tables remained untouched by any living thing and objects were still scattered about. 

 

From the other room there was a muffled conversation, slightly louder here than on the earpiece. He could barely make out words. The door at the other end opened, and Saturn stepped out and shut it.

 

“Okay.” Her voice was a whisper. “You’ve got this.” She patted him on the shoulder, and he felt that same rush of energy he had before.

“I’ll have you covered if things get sticky.” To this, he merely nodded.

 

She left the room so fast she couldn’t be seen.

 

Dean took a breath and a step forward. He closed his eyes, gripped his gun, and teleported.

He slammed his fist right into the back of the Lord’s neck.

 

Mobius reeled, teleporting away quickly, to the opposite side of the room. Seeing the Seer, he frowned, and summoned a meteor with a raise of the hand. Dean teleported aside just in time to avoid being smashed through the wall. Dean fired blindly, but Mobius teleported aside and, moving downwards quickly in a rigid motion, the floor began to crack and explode. Dean had to teleport and fly to avoid rubble and explosions.

 

“Dave, cover me!” he shouted into his earpiece.

 

On the signal, there came Dave Strider, sword slicing furiously at Mobius. Out of frustration, Mobius slammed Dave aside with a motion like he was elbowing somebody. Dave hit the wall so hard the impact sent cracks up the wall.

 

Mobius spun, sending a comet ripping through the middle sector of the dome. The top sector hit the bottom, and debris began to fall.

 

“Betrayed!” he snapped at himself. “By my own goddamned daughter!”

He looked up at Dean, who was floating about a dozen feet in the air, where the former middle sector of the dome was, but was now the top sector’s. He glared at him.

“All because of  _ you _ .” 

“Whoa, don’t go putting blame on me, you brought this upon yourself!” Dean yelled.

 

Dean teleported and pulled the trigger. He missed. They chased each other, flying, teleporting, full on meteors against bullets fired from a simple pistol. 

 

Mobius was a literal king of the gods, and Dean couldn’t do a thing. It was no use, even with luck on his side.

  
He finally spun around and fired straight at Mobius.


	10. Chapter 10

The gun clicked.

Clicked twice.

Three times.

 

“Shit,” muttered Dean. “Shit, fuck.”

 

Mobius chuckled. “What a waste.” He shook his head at the other Space player.

 

Another flick of the hand created a black hole in the floor. Dean was caught by surprise, his gun flying from his hands and into the void of the massive hole in the floor. Reality as he knew it was beginning to disappear, right in front of his eyes. That’s was black holes did, afterall.

 

He was nearly sucked in, but halfway began to try and fly up in a panic. Dave was being sucked in cape-first, and he scrambled and clutched his sword tightly, attempting to get out of the building. Saturn had been flying around too quickly to ever be seen, and now, tired and being moved by something stronger than her own gravity-defying skills, was thrown from one wall of the dome to the other, before being flung straight into the black hole.

 

Mobius caught his only child halfway without even reaching out to her, forcing her to float up, where his powers kept her pinned in the air with him, unaffected by the hole. 

 

Dean was using all of his energy to keep himself flying upwards, or rather, in one place. So was Dave. Occasionally Dean would lose a bit of energy and suddenly begin to fall again, but he would regain it and catch himself again.

 

“What a fucking waste,” Mobius said again. “And you’d think Space players are the strongest.”

A tightening of his hand and Saturn’s face contorted in pain- she was being choked, and Mobius didn’t seemed concerned about it.

 

“Dean,” Saturn said. Suddenly the dome vanished, and was replaced with a galaxy. The place glowed a soft red, and here, it was just him and Saturn. “Take this.”

 

She, although in her pained state, threw him a sword. He caught it. It was a shiny, polished white with a violet grip. “Mom would want a person like you to keep it,” she continued.

“Why not you?” Dean’s expression turned to worry, fear, confusion, or a mix of the three. God, he didn’t know.

“I’m not strong. She needs someone worthy of being her heir. I believe she’d choose you if she were here.”

“But why--”

“Because you’re doing the right thing.”

 

The galaxy vanished, and he was there in the chaos of the dome again. Debris and chunks of the building flew everywhere, being sucked in by the black hole.

 

“This is game over for you,” Mobius said smugly. He waved his hand, and Saturn vanished.

 

He floated up to Dean, who was still struggling against the black hole.

“Looks like I win.”

_ ‘He’s right,’ _ Dean thought, but then thought again.

 

Out of nowhere, he drew the sword, pointing it right at Mobius and forcing him to fly backwards to avoid it.

 

“Hadron?” The Lord’s eyes widened at the blade, but then he looked up at Dean’s face again only for his expression to go dark and angry.

 

The sword was balanced well in Dean’s hands. It was light, but had a deadly sharp dual-edge blade. Even lightly touching the edge could cut a person, he thought.

 

He sliced at Mobius, who dodged. The black hole vanished.

The two were on a chase again. Dean had recovered his energy and was dodging whatever Mobius would throw at him like a pro. Mobius was growing slower, it seemed. Dean knew what could finish this.

 

He let the Lord waste most of his energy before he twisted around, raised the sword, and propelled himself fast enough to stab Mobius through the heart.

 

_ Just. _

 

Dean flew down to the floor. He dropped the sword, sat down, and sighed. He put his face in his hands and Dave muttered, “Craziest week ever.”

 

Dean quite literally fell on the floor when they got back to Aranea’s place. Dave sat on the floor and leaned against the wall.

 

“So,” said Aranea. “How’d it go?”

“It was tiring,” muttered Dean.

“And weird,” added Dave.

“And weird.”

 

Dave looked up at Dean. “How’d you get the sword?”

“... Saturn gave it to me.”

“No she didn’t.”

“Not in the real world.”

“What do you mean not the real world?”

“It was a pocket dimension of a sort. When she was stuck, the world froze and everything faded into something that looked like space. This--”

He slid the sword to the center of the room to let everyone see it.

“-- is her mother’s sword. She said that she needed a proper heir or something. She told me that she wasn’t strong enough.”

 

Aranea was nodding. “This is starting to click together.”

Dean squinted at her. “What is.”

“It’s a story that carapacians told for a while in many verses. A lot of people thought it was a myth.”

“You’re not going on another storytelling rant, are you.”

“Fight me, Dean Dracon.”

 

Aranea went through a Sylladex- funny she had one after the apocalypse- and took out a book.

 

“Mobius Trip and Hadron Kaleido. They’re destined lovers who met on the Battlefield of Skaia leading opposing armies. Hadron is an Agent of Derse, and Mobius is the Archagent of Prospit.”

She was flipping through the book, and flipped it around to show him. On the two pages were two carapacians. One was a Dersite, short and curvy, and the other was a tall, skinny Prospitian.

“But they’re humans,” Dean argued.

“In this universe they are.”

“You mean they change species throughout verses.”

“Yes. They’re a rare occurrence, only fifteen or so pairs of them have been picked out, a majority of them carapacians. One cannot exist without the other. If one dies by a non-natural cause, the other is destined to die as well. They’re victims of fate. If the last one has a killer,” She gestured to Dean. “Then they are also a victim of fate.”

 

Dean gave a quiet, “huh.”

 

“They are the only ones known to solve the Ultimate Riddle. They wrote songs and music to tell their tales and hide clues and hints. Most of what they’ve written are stories. You just have to look into them. In some very rare cases, a child of them will exist.”

“Saturn.”

“We know who she is now.” Aranea shrugged. “Now, if Hadron was killed in this verse, then Mobius would die eventually, but he would try to get revenge when he could. That means there’s probably a killer out there still.”

 

Dean grabbed the sword and set it in his lap. He noticed then the paper tucked in the grip.

He yanked it out, opened it, and read aloud.

 

“Nine royals, one traitor. Come to the House of the Ten Gods.”

 

One more line appeared out of nowhere, written in the same, purple, curly handwriting.

  
“Your journey starts here.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy New Years from the the Kismesises who write this fuck!


End file.
